Richard Chaka writes;

SEDIBENG.- As we approach June the 17th, as we remember the Boipatong Massacre, it is prudent that we remember the Vaal.

The Vaal Triangle, as it was historically known, was once one of South Africa’s most important industrial heartlands. Stretching across the mighty Vaal River from Evaton and Sebokeng to Vanderbijlpark, Vereeniging, Sasolburg and Zamdela, it was a region built around production, industry and work.

Its factories sustained local communities.

Its factories, steel mills, power stations, mines and chemical plants did not only sustain local communities; they powered the South African economy itself.

For decades, major industrial giants such as Iscor, Sasol, AECI, Eskom’s Lethabo Power Station and numerous mining operations created employment opportunities for generations of families. Around these industries grew entire local economies.

Small businesses, engineering firms, transport companies, brick manufacturers, furnace operators, contractors and countless SMMEs depended on the industrial ecosystem of the Vaal.

Their consequences were not shared equally across the country.

Municipalities were financially sustainable because there was a strong rates base supported by industry and employment.

When South Africa entered the democratic era in 1994, the new government inherited an economy burdened by debt, economic isolation and the consequences of decades of sanctions and disinvestment as a political strategy to destroy the apartheid regime. To stabilise the country and integrate South Africa into the global economy, a series of economic restructuring policies were adopted. These included commercialisation, liberalisation and, in certain sectors, privatization of strategic state assets.

The ripple effects were devastating.

While these decisions may have been taken in pursuit of national objectives, their consequences were not shared equally across the country.

The Vaal became one of the regions that carried a disproportionate share of the burden.

Industrial restructuring, the decline of manufacturing, privatization, global competition and shifts in investment patterns gradually eroded the economic foundation upon which the Vaal had been built. Industries that once anchored entire communities downsized, automated or closed.

The ripple effects were devastating.

Companies such as Stewards & Lloyds, brick manufacturers, engineering workshops and furnace firms that depended on the steel industry found themselves struggling for survival. As the industrial base weakened, thousands of jobs disappeared.

Yet, while the Vaal sacrificed much in the name of national economic transformation, very little was done to build a replacement economy.

The Vaal was effectively asked to absorb the social costs of South Africa’s economic transition.

This is the fundamental political question that must be asked today:… If a region contributes to solving a national problem, does the nation not have a responsibility to assist that region in rebuilding itself?

The Vaal was effectively asked to absorb the social costs of South Africa’s economic transition. However, unlike other strategic regions that later benefited from targeted investment programmes, special development initiatives and large-scale public spending, the Vaal was largely left to navigate deindustrialisation on its own.

The consequences are visible everywhere, unemployment has reached crisis levels, poverty has deepened and municipal finances have deteriorated. Service delivery challenges have intensified. Communities that were once sustained by productive economic activity now face growing dependence on social grants and limited economic opportunities.

The largest Category B municipality in South Africa, Emfuleni, is expected to provide services to a growing population despite a shrinking economic base and declining revenue streams.

This is not simply a local governance issue, it is a structural economic injustice.

The Vaal’s current condition is not merely the result of municipal failures or poor administration. It is also the outcome of national economic decisions whose costs were concentrated in one region while the benefits were distributed nationally.

For this reason, the conversation should move beyond ordinary development demands and towards a discussion about economic compensation and restorative investment.

The Vaal deserves a dedicated national recovery programme, it deserves priority infrastructure funding, it deserves industrial revitalisation incentives, it deserves large-scale investment in manufacturing, logistics, agro-processing and green energy.

It deserves special funding mechanisms that recognise the unique economic sacrifices the region made during South Africa’s transition.

Such a programme should not be viewed as charity.

The designation of the Vaal as a Special Economic Zone is a welcome and important step. It signals recognition that the region requires targeted intervention. However, a Special Economic Zone alone cannot reverse decades of industrial decline. What is needed is a bold SPECIAL Presidential Development Initiative specifically designed for the Vaal, supported by both National and Gauteng Provincial government.

Such a programme should not be viewed as charity, it should be viewed as repayment of a historical debt.

The Vaal helped build and liberate South Africa.

South Africa cannot continue to benefit from the sacrifices made by the Vaal while expecting its people to bear the long-term consequences alone. Economic justice requires more than acknowledging the past. It requires deliberate action to restore opportunity, rebuild industry and create a future worthy of the region that once powered the nation.

The Vaal helped build and liberate South Africa.

The people of Sharpeville died for it. The people of Zone 7 in Sebokeng laid their lives for freedom to be realized, and yes, the Boipatong people, including children, were butchered for the 27th of April to happen.

The time has come for South Africa to help rebuild the Vaal!

Richard Chaka writes here in his personal capacity, therefore this is his opinion. Ed